On Tue, 30 May 2017 09:56:07 +0100 Ciaran McCreesh wrote: > First problem: encoding "don't change this from its current setting > unless you have a reason to do so" is an utter pain in SAT. I get the impression that this is harder to solve in Gentoo than it has to be, because my impression of portage config is that all sources of configuration are equal. Configuration in /etc/portage/* , /etc/portage/profile/*, /usr/portage/profile/* are taken like equals, and as far as I can tell, portage has no way of knowing if a use flag is disabled by user choice, or if the flag being disabled is simply the default. I think having a clear way to disambiguate between the two would give the resolver more freedom to adjust the settings that the user didn't specify as preferences, and try harder to conform to the users preferences.... Instead of the current approach, where you can either "Change nothing" or "change anything". "Change nothing at first" -> "Change anything within this subset second" -> "Recommend changes in config if you can't solve within that constraint"